PHOTO: GMGM The new C8 Corvette starts at a surprisingly low price for something with Italian supercars in its sights, but it seems GM is swallowing the difference to make it that low.Motor Trend reports the $59,995 starting price charged to U.S. buyers $69,998 in Canada will only stick around for one year. And if it doesnt go up by $20,000, the company will continue losing money on the lower trim levels, according to what a senior GM official told the publication.Its not surprising, really, given that the C8 marked such a radical departure from the front-engine C7. Even minor changes to a vehicle can run into the millions, taking into account the cost of redesign, retooling, any adjustments or training at the assembly level, any new crash test requirements, and even the far more mundane, such as stocking new replacement parts or rewriting the repair manuals. With a major change such as C7 to C8, costs can get closer to or even over the billion-dollar mark. Its hard enough to make that back on a volume-seller, and even tougher on a halo car that will end up in far fewer driveways.Motor Trend said the base price of the last-gen C7 rose nearly $2,000 the year after it debuted, and then went up another $2,000 the following year. The GM source said that, with the C8, the price would have to go through the roof in order to cover GMs cost.Keeping the initial price down might well prove worth it, in terms of the buzz it created and how many buyers are eager to plunk down their deposits and its likely many people will come in for the starting price, but go home with something higher up on the trim scale.For American buyers, $59,995 gets you a 1LT trim, while the 2LT starts at $67,295, and the 3LT begins at $71,945. Thats even before you start piling on options that range from premium paint colours ($500 to $995) and specialty wheels ($2,695), to a carbon-fibre roof at $2,495, or the Z51 Performance Package for $5,000.Motor Trend reports that GM loses money on every C8 priced under $80,000, but that customers also drop off the radar when a vehicle climbs over $100,000. It looks like adjusting the C8s price tag is going to be a very careful balancing game for the
Origin: Chevrolet will lose money on base-price C8 Corvettes: report
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Mid-engined Corvette’s launch pushed back to February 2020
The 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8Chevrolet The first deliveries of the new C8-generation Chevrolet Corvette will be pushed back to February 2020 instead of showing up in customers driveways before the end of 2019 as previously anticipated, the automakers confirmed.As you mightve expected, the recent six-week UAW strike played a big role in that, reports Road Track.But so did the cars Bowling Green, Kentucky assembly facility needing more time to retool its production line for the Vettes new mid-engined architecture.After a temporary shutdown to make all that happen and, of course, after Chevrolet finishes rolling out the final C7 Corvettes it needs to still build the line should be back up and running by
Origin: Mid-engined Corvette’s launch pushed back to February 2020
Collection of Corvettes hiding underneath Manhattan to be raffled off
A collection of 36 Corvettes hidden away under a Manhattan parking garage for decades will be raffled off for charity.The cars have a very storied and somewhat bizarre past connected with psychedelic pop artist Peter Max, recounts Hagerty.Max sold the cars in 2014 to the co-owner of the Gotham Comedy Club, Chris Mazzilli, and two New York City real estate families, the Hellers and the Spindlers.But prior to that, they sat for nearly 30 years, unused, covered in all of New Yorks filth in an old parking garage. Max had picked up the cars from a Long Island carpenter who had won the lot in a VH1 call-in contest in 1988. Maxs original plan was to use the cars as an art project, which probably entailed painting them some awful way.However, Max not long afterward got into some trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, and the sports cars were left alone, over time earning the nickname the Lost Corvettes.The cars in the collection span the first 36 years of the models production, and theyre pretty consistent, options-wise; most have automatic transmissions, and a lot are convertibles, as well. Basically, good cruising Corvettes. The cars will sit in filth no longer, as this new organization, “Corvette Heroes,” started by Mazzilli, the Hellers and the Spindlers, plans to give away each vehicle one-by-one in a national sweepstakes to benefit charity.Some of the cars have suffered a bit of damage in the wake of some careless movers who didnt understand what exactly they were moving, but most have now been restored, requiring only light work to return them to their original
Origin: Collection of Corvettes hiding underneath Manhattan to be raffled off
Next-gen Corvette’s rear end already leaking
A photograph of what looks like the rear end of the upcoming next-generation Chevrolet Corvette C8 showed up on a forum early July, about 10 days before the much-hyped cars global reveal.The image, posted by AbsolutHank of corvetteforum.com, shows the back of a blue sports car that lines up pretty closely with everything we know and have seen of the mid-engined sports car so far.The image was also shared by an Instagram user with the same handle.The most interesting design cue revealed in the photo may be the taillights, which GM had been pretty keen on disguising even on the camoflaged test mules its been driving around the U.S. View this post on Instagram The new #Corvette #C8 #mecorvette #midenginecorvette 👀 A post shared by Ryan Hartley (@absoluthank) on Jul 7, 2019 at 5:58pm PDTThe lamps have a very Camaro-esque aesthetic, which seemed to divide members of the Corvette forum, and will likely split car enthusiasts generally, too.Chevrolet said July 8 that the Corvette C8s full reveal on July 18 in Orange County, California will also be livestreamed online by the automaker globally, so that fans all around the world can watch the covers get pulled at the same time, if they log on at 10:30 EDT (7:30 PDT).If that includes you, youre going to want to bookmark this website here, which is where the official stream will be hosted. The stream will include Corvette video footage, a hosted preshow and the reveal presentation, the automaker said.Following the reveal and through to early 2020, the new Corvette will go on a tour of some 125 U.S. dealerships on the East and West coasts, where fans and prospective buyers can see the thing up close. Well let you know when its wheels will first touch down in
Origin: Next-gen Corvette’s rear end already leaking
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